Liverpool have reached an agreement to sign J\u00e9r\u00e9my Jacquet from Rennes in the summer, with a fee reported to be up to \u20ac72 million (\u00a362.4 million, $85.4 million). Fabrice Hawkins was first to reveal that the Reds have agreed terms to bring the 20-year-old to Anfield. Jacquet had an early preference for Chelsea but changed his mind and opted for Merseyside instead.<\/p>\n
The urgency at Liverpool helps explain the switch. Anfield has been stretched at centre back all season: the club missed out on Marc Gu\u00e9hi during the summer and lost Giovanni Leoni to a season-ending injury. The need for reinforcements may increase in the summer, with Ibrahima Konat\u00e9 in the final six months of his contract. If Konat\u00e9 departs, Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and the inexperienced Leoni would be Arne Slot\u2019s only senior centre backs.<\/p>\n
Gu\u00e9hi was available again this winter but Liverpool chose not to compete with Manchester City. According to The Athletic, those in charge at Anfield believe Jacquet offers better long-term value for money. Despite his age, Jacquet has impressed with maturity, the attributes of a modern defender and comfort on the ball. Sky Germany\u2019s Florian Plettenberg even reports Manchester United made a late, unsuccessful approach.<\/p>\n
Jacquet\u2019s thinking was also shaped by the contrasting environments at Liverpool and Chelsea. Earlier in the window he was believed to be keen on joining Chelsea, with an agreement over personal terms reached early in negotiations. Sky Sports News report that Jacquet grew concerned about his role in a crowded Chelsea squad. Chelsea currently have four senior centre backs available to manager Liam Rosenior\u2014Trevoh Chalobah, Wesley Fofana, Beno\u00eet Badiashile and Tosin Adarabioyo\u2014with Levi Colwill to return from injury in the summer.<\/p>\n
Chelsea have rebuffed interest in 19-year-old Josh Acheampong, insisting the teenager will have a path to the first team, and the impending return of loanee Mamadou Sarr from Strasbourg will add further competition. In a system that operates with two starting centre backs, opportunities would be shared and Jacquet is believed to have developed concerns.<\/p>\n
At Liverpool, by contrast, he would be immediately in contention for a starting role and, should Konat\u00e9 leave, would become Virgil van Dijk\u2019s new starting partner. With only hours before the window closes, Chelsea are focused on recalling Sarr. The 20-year-old will be Chelsea\u2019s new “signing” on Deadline Day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liverpool have agreed a \u20ac72m deal for J\u00e9r\u00e9my Jacquet as Chelsea pull back amid squad congestion. Day<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6404,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,175,1163],"tags":[299,1393],"class_list":["post-6405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-liverpool","category-transfers","tag-arne-slot","tag-centre-back"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}